Sometimes, when I place torches, lighting updates seem to happen only within the same chunk (horizontal and vertical). I first noticed the issue at a high altitude in an amplified world, but it has happened since at about sea level in an ordinary world.
I'm not sure if this is the same issue, but loading chunks can cause the same sort of lighting issue where block light from one chunk doesn't reach the other. Manually placing a torch in the wrongly lit chunk causes the lighting to update properly.
May affect previous versions.